Rottingdean Smugglers Night would like to extend a heart felt thank you to everyone who helped raise money for our evening last Saturday during the Live Lounge event held at the White Horse.

Firstly a big thanks to Juliette Golding and all at the Live Lounge for organizing such a successful and enjoyable evening and for giving us the opportunity to raise money for Smugglers. Thank you Mark Buckle for compering. He did so well that we will definitely be asking for his services again in the future! We raised a total of £531.00 from the raffle and games. £75.00 alone was raised with the auction of Liam Bridcutts shirt (Brightons Player of the Year) which had been signed by the whole squad.

Thank you to all the Traders for donating prizes and to Hayley Collins for rushing around and collecting them.

Labels for Less launches a Pop-Up shop in Pebbles, Rottingdean on Thursday 26th April between 5pm and 8pm. We are selling wonderful pre-loved designer clothes at affordable prices. They are all in fabulous condition and will not break the bank to buy.

Labels for Less buys and sells pre-loved designer clothes in the Brighton area. Leonora Meadows manages the company and also works from Bar-Boots in Crouch End, London. This is a great way to move fabulous clothes around . The designer clothes are so well made and classic they are truly pre-loved.

At our new shop in Rottingdean our philosophy is to provide some of the best gourmet coffee beans and loose leaf teas available.

We offer an extensive range of artisan, freshly roasted origin coffee beans ethically sourced from specific farms, estates and co-operatives from around the world, as well as an excellent range of organic and premium coffee and tea blends.

Your choice of beans will be freshly ground to suit, if you so require, whilst you indulge in a sample of our gourmet coffee of the month.
In addition we stock a varied selection of coffee and tea making equipment & accessories for brewing that perfect cup.

For those who may not have time to linger and enjoy the banter or the sea views, our delicious coffee is available ‘to go’.
So, when you are next in Rottingdean we strongly recommend you come in for a browse and the aroma! We are located by the West Street Car Park just up from Tesco Express

The Smugglers are hard at work all year round raising funds for our night. This year it will be on Saturday 1st of December and we busy making sure that it is even more exciting than last year.

This weekend coming there will be a raffle and games during the White Horses Live Lounge Event Saturday 21st April. Tickets are available from Handy Hardware at £15 for dancing and a hot buffet. For more info on this event please call Juiliette 07876422223
Elsewhere the Plough is running a meat raffle every Friday evening proceeds going to Rottingdean Smugglers Night and have done very well for us so far.

The Queen Vic will be starting a treasure game to help raise funds very soon, so look out for that one.

Diamond Jubilee Weekend Saturday 2nd June PARC are hosting a Pirates picnic down on the Terraces. Samesky will be making outfits with local children and Skulldrummery will be returning to drum up some atmosphere and teach the kids a few tunes.

Anyone that wants to get involved in Rottingdean Smugglers or sponser our event please contact us on the email address below.

Life can take an interesting turn; my wife asked me to join her in attending a Rottingdean Parish Council meeting regarding sheep grazing on Beacon Hill. Two years later I found myself voted onto the Parish Council! I wanted to put something back into the village and felt that I could do something positive as a parish councillor.

The next thing I know is that I have been asked to represent the Parish Council in their discussions with Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) to restore the seafront public toilets. This project had been stalled for a variety of reasons since the toilet block was closed without any warning two years earlier and, with the Terraces theatre opened in the summer of 2011, it was obvious that this now needed to be top priority. A series of meetings were held with BHCC officers to thrash out plans to either renovate the existing semi-derelict site or build a new toilet block under the arches by the Terraces.

There are times in my life when I am amazed at people’s generosity and I was delighted to accept an offer of help from Keith Pryke, a local property developer, who is giving his expertise free of charge to guide me in moving this project forward as quickly as possible. At the beginning of January we gained access to the toilet block and realised that the building had been extremely well built and appeared to be in very good condition despite years of neglect. BHCC arranged for a structural engineer’s inspection that proved our amateur sleuthing was correct!

Now we could finally move forward and at the beginning of February we started to draw up plans for a complete renovation and redesign of the building but I realised that a great many more factors had to be included in the final design. These included maintenance and operational costs, BHCC policy, health and safety, vandalism, family access and security! I was slowly becoming an expert on public toilet design, an unexpected consequence of being a parish councillor!

At the same time we also had to include a Seafront Office for BHCC and a café with inside seating! After several more meetings with BHCC a plan slowly evolved that now includes three family friendly cubicles that are also designed to accommodate a baby buggy, baby changing facilities and a loo seat suitable for toddlers that is included within the design of the toilet! A fourth cubicle is designed for disabled use as well.

By dint of some clever drawing we have also been able to include a separate entrance and secure storage for the folding chairs and other paraphernalia for the Terraces! We are now working on preparing the tender documents with the goal being to start work in the early part of this summer.

To find out more come along to the Annual Village Meeting at 7.30pm on 19th April at the Whiteway Centre.

Musicians, vocalists and bands aged 18 and under are invited to audition for a place in the first Sussex Talented Childrens Music Festival to be held on 7th & 8th July 2012 on the Rottingdean Terraces Stage.

Please call Gary on 07799776773 to book an audition time on Saturday 12th May in Rottingdean

A panel of independent judges will include 2 record producers and 2 west end actresses

Clive Bonny lives with his wife Sue and two chihuahuas in a house at the top of Nevill Road on Beacon Hill called Windmill Downs close to Rottingdean’s signature Smock Mill.

“I’ve enjoyed the magnificent views across the English Channel since 1966 when my family moved to the south coast from Blackpool. In the summer months in the 1950’s and 1960’s Sue stayed at Rottingdean’s Newick House Hotel. We married in 1976 at St Mary’s Church in Shoreham and enjoyed several years in Roedean before a hop skip and jump onto Beacon Hill. We can still see the Norman church in Shoreham where we spent our childhood, and we have wonderful views from Beachy Head to the Isle of Wight on a clear day.

Rottingdean’s community history is fascinating: a Neolithic flint settlement on Beacon Hill in 3500BC later became the site for Championship bare knuckled boxing fights, and the world’s biggest cricket score, 67, off a single ball. Our village was named in the Doomsday Book after the Norman Conquest. Locals were unlucky victims of the Hundred Years War when in 1377 the French invaded and burned St Margarets Church with the villagers inside; the local vicar supported hundreds of lucky smugglers of wines and spirits via underground tunnels from the shore to the pubs and church. Our local characters include many famous artists, politicians, musicians and writers.

The cobbled flint cottages, pubs and clubs are a tremendous reflection of the village history. Our annual torchlight procession is a testament to this, with over 2000 local people in the high street celebrating in pirate dress the victory over the local tax collectors. The new Localism Bill now gives our Parish Council and local people greater powers to manage our community affairs. I hope our community takes advantage of this over the next few years.

There are many different ways to link into community activities. I enjoy the Rottingdean Camera Club and the Rottingdean (social) Club in the High Street where there are lots of lively characters. I’m a life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and writer of business pocketbooks. I’m also a member of the Albion 1901 Football Club with over 2000 business members, and we are enjoying great success at the new Amex Stadium. The Brighton Marathon and Half Marathon now bring thousands of runners to our doorstep every year, with Beacon Hill being their turning point. I’ve joined the runners on my roller blades as the cycle way along the cliff from Brighton is a perfect surface.

In the 1980’s I joined the first few London Marathons and my last was on roller blades around the Goodwood Race Circuit for the British Heart Foundation. My eldest son Ben is doing the London to Brighton cycle ride for the same charity this year. I’m walking with the many supporters of the Sussex Heart Foundation from the Marina to Hove on my birthday May 13 to celebrate the achievements of Brighton’s Royal Sussex Hospital cardiac doctors and nurses who recently saved my life!

On the business front my work involves me in advising small businesses and social enterprises how to grow and diversify, reduce costs, and manage risks in these tough economic times. Recent clients have included a waste management charity, a hotel, school academy, football club, website developer, printer, publisher, roofer, surveyor, fencing supplier, chauffeur company, and PR company. Last year I worked with students from Brighton Fashion Week building the world’s largest Pompom from recycled clothes in Jubilee Square. A fifteen foot monster, and it is still visible on You-Tube.

I’m currently encouraging local organisations to a national best practice scheme called the Responsible Business Awards. It recognises people’s achievements in developing enterprises which protect the environment and support community development. Mutual support and reciprocity create resilience, and this award scheme will help communities to sustain themselves, and become more self-sufficient. Sustainability is difficult to achieve without the help of others.

The Royal Society of Arts is also sponsoring my work to promote the local recycling of clothes to reduce the massive waste going to landfill. 12% of landfill is waste textile materials. Local school students can redesign waste textiles into new items, and in doing so demonstrate their entrepreneurship skills to make them more employable.

I also help others obtain government grants for their own enterprise development. Recycling taxpayers money back to them can produce some great results at very low cost. If you want to know more about that email me at Clive@consult-smp.com

The annual Spring Meeting of the Rottingdean Preservation Society Entrance will be held at 7.30pm on Thursday 17 May 2012 at the Whiteway Centre.

This year’s guest speaker, Douglas d”Enno, author of ‘Rottingdean through Time’, will be presenting an illustrated talk on “Rottingdean Remembered”.

In his talk Douglas will be looking at the reminiscences of 8-10 people who shared their recollections of the village and village life with him through interviews or whose memories are preserved in their writings. People and places will be referred to by means of images from his own collection and possibly in some instances with recourse to the village archives held at the Grange.

This promises to be a fascinating evening for everyone interested in the history of the village and some of its illustrious past inhabitants. Entry is open to all and free of charge.

Having moved well into the second half of the year, we still retain 200 subscriptions and as most of you already know sixty percent of the income is allocated for prize monies.

The balance then goes towards local charitable causes and helps fund other village events such as “Rottingdean in Bloom”, PARC Youth Work Projects, Village Fair, the Rottingdean Arts Music Festivals and the restoration of the lower Terraces, not to mention all the Christmas festivities and decorations, last year, largely supported by Southern Water, hopefully for the benefit of residents as a whole.